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FRIES 

The  Mecklenburg 
Declaration  of 
Independence • 


E 

215.9 

F91 


declaration  of  inoepenbence 


The  Mecklenburg  Declaration  of  Independence 

as   Mentioned   in   Records   of 

Wacnovia. 


BY 

MISS  ADELAIDE  L.  FRIES. 

M 


KmvARDs  A.  KRoruHTON  L'RiNTixt;  COMPANY.  RALEKJH,  N.  C. 
1907. 


LIBRARY 


m  OF  CALIFORNIA 

SANTA  BARBARA 


THE  MECKLENBURG  DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE, 
AS  MENTIONED  IN  RECORDS  OF  WACHOVIA.* 


In  September,  1904,  Mr.  O.  J.  Lehman,  of  Bethania,  N.  C., 
discovered  among  the  papers  in  the  Moravian  Archives  at  that 
place  an  historical  sketch  bearing  on  its  cover  the  title: 

"Bruchstiick, 

Aufsatz  von  den  Vorkommenheiten 

wahrend  dem  Revolutions-Kriege 

welche  einen  Bezug 

auf  die  Wachau 

hatten 

bis  Ende  1779." 

In  this  paper  Mr.  Lehman  found  a  pointed  reference  to  the 
Mecklenburg  Declaration  of  Independence,  which  he  translated 
and  sent  to  the  Charlotte  Observer.  The  paragraph  and  its 
translation  are  as  follows:  "Ich  kan  zu  Ende  des  ijj^sten 
Jahres  nicht  unangemerkt  lassen,  dass  schon  im  Sommer  sel- 
bigen  Jahres,  das  ist  im  May,  Juny,  oder  July,  die  County  Meck- 
lenburg in  Nord  Carolina  sich  fur  so  frey  u.  independent  von 
England  declarirte,  u.  solche  Einrichtung  zur  Verwaltung  der 
Gesetze  unter  sich  machte,  als  jamalen  der  Continental  Congress 
hernach  ins  Ganze  gethan.  Dieser  Congress  aber  sahe  dieses 
Verfahren  als  zu  friihzeitig  an."  The  words  in  italics  are  writ- 
ten in  English  script,  the  others  in  German.  "I  can  not  leave 
unmentioned  at  the  end  of  the  1 775th  year,  that  already  in  the 
summer  of  this  year,  that  is  in  May,  June  or  July,  the  County  of 
Mecklenburg  in  North  Carolina  declared  itself  free  and  inde- 
pendent of  England,  and  made  such  arrangements  for  the; ad- 
ministration of  the  laws  among  themselves,  as  later  the  Conti- 
nental Congress  made  for  all.  This  Congress,  however,  con- 
sidered these  proceedings  premature." 

*  Reprinted  from  The  Wachovia  Moravian  of  April.  1906. 


The  publishing  of  this  paragraph  in  1904,  and  the  printing  of 
the  fac-simile  in  December,  1905,  accompanied  by  an  article 
from  the  pen  of  Mr.  Alexander  Graham,  has  brought  forth  a 
number  of  letters  inquiring  as  to  the  date  and  authorship  of 
the  "Fragment,"  which  unfortunately  lacks  both  date  and  sig- 
nature. These  questions  may  be  condensed  into  five,  which 
cover  the  whole  ground: 

1 i )  The  authenticity  of  the  Moravian  Church  Diaries  is  be- 
yond question,  but  this  paper,  by  its  title,  is  not  a  part  of  the 
Diary,  but  only  a  "Fragment"  : — can  it  be  considered  reliable  ? 

(2)  Taken  alone  the  paragraph  reads  like  a  kind  of  post- 
script and  was  certainly  written  after  1775,  since  it  refers  to 
later  proceedings  of  Congress : — is  it  a  part  of  the  original  docu- 
ment? 

(3)  Where  was  the  paper  written? 

(4)  Who  wrote  it? 

( 5 )  When  was  it  written  ? 

A  considerable  amount  of  time,  care,  and  research  have  been 
necessary  before  these  questions  could  be  satisfactorily  an- 
swered, but  the  following  statements  may  now  be  made : 

(/.)  Can  it  be  considered  reliable?  It  was  customary  to  keep 
the  daily  Church  Diaries  as  concisely  as  possible,  and  any  event 
which  required  more  extended  notice  was  written  separately  and 
filed  with  the  Diaries.  Memoirs,  accounts  of  special  Church 
services,  historical  sketches,  etc.,  are  classed  together  by  Mora- 
vian Archivists  under  the  technical  name  of  "Beilage,"  the  term 
employed  by  the  earlier  diarists,  and  this  "Fragment"  has  its 
counterpart  in  a  number  of  such  papers  written  at  different 
periods.  Many  of  these  "Beilage"  are  still  between  the  pages 
of  the  Diaries, — others  have  been  taken  out  from  time  to  time 
for  reference,  and  when  so  removed  the  ascertaining  of  date  and 
authorship  is  difficult,  as  practically  none  are  signed.  This 
arouses  no  surprise  in  the  mind  of  any  one  who  has  worked 
among  the  records,  for  it  was  not  customary  to  sign  anything, 
even  the  carefully  kept  minutes  of  the  various  Boards  give  the 


te       0    /, 


'  - 


Facsimile  of  Reference  to  Mecklenburg  Declaration. 


name  and  signature  of  neither  chairman  nor  secretary.  Appa- 
rently, to  their  minds,  the  subject  of  which  they  wrote  was  all- 
important,  their  own  connection  with  it  entirely  secondary,  but 
their  painstaking  accuracy  is  so  marked  that  the  careful  stu- 
dent gives  them  entire  confidence  even  while  regretting  that 
their  custom  did  not  conform  to  modern  usage. 

(2. )  Is  it  a  part  of  the  original  document?  The  "Fragment" 
is  neither  a  diary,  nor  a  mechanical  compilation  from  a  diary. 
It  is  an  historical  sketch,  well  written,  clear-cut,  showing  keen 
insight  into  the  affairs  of  the  State  and  Nation,  as  well  as  the 
most  intimate  acquaintance  with  events  in  Wachovia.  While 
for  convenience  the  author  divides  his  account  into  years,  he 
frequently  runs  forward  to  link  some  result  to  its  cause.  For 
example,  in  reciting  some  of  the  events  early  in  1775,  he  states 
that  the  sailors  on  the  English  merchant  ships  in  Charleston 
harbor,  being  unable  to  secure  permission  to  land  their  cargoes, 
simply  threw  them  overboard,  so  that  they  could  load  with  rice 
and  sail  for  home.  Salt  was  one  of  the  articles  so  destroyed, 
and  he  comments  on  the  great  scarcity  of  this  prime  necessity 
later  on,  and  the  suffering  that  the  saving  of  this  salt  might  have 
averted.  Paper  money  claims  his  attention  in  each  year's  his- 
tory, but  in  speaking  of  the  first  issue  without  royal  authority, 
in  1775,  he  notes  its  utter  loss  of  value  late  in  the  war;  and 
again,  in  1777,  he  mentions  the  statement  by  the  Assembly  of 
1783  that  the  depreciation  began  in  '77.  The  introduction  of 
later  developments  into  the  Mecklenburg  paragraph  is,  there- 
fore, quite  in  keeping  with  the  rest  of  the  paper ;  and  its  form 
is  also  paralleled  by  similar  additions  at  the  close  of  other  years, 
where  items  which  had  been  omitted  in  the  current  account 
were  added  at  the  close.  This  paragraph  is  plainly  a  part  of 
the  original  document,  and  entitled  to  all  the  credence  that  may 
be  given  to  any  part  thereof. 

(5.)  Where  was  it  written?  Although  found  in  Bethania,  this 
paper  was  most  certainly  written  by  a  man  who  lived  in  Salem 
during  the  Revolutionary  War.  Not  only  does  the  whole  story 


center  about  Salem,  then  already  the  principal  town  of  Wacho- 
via, but  events  transpiring  there  are  given  with  a  certain  inti- 
mate knowledge  that  can  have  no  other  explanation.  The 
paper  must  have  been  taken  to  Bethania  at  some  later  date,  per- 
haps in  comparatively  recent  years. 

(4.)  Who  wrote  it?  The  handwriting  of  the  "Fragment" 
differs  from  that  found  in  the  Church  Diaries  of  those  years, 
and  certain  features  in  the  paper  itself  suggested  Traugott 
Bagge  as  its  author.  This  was  confirmed  beyond  a  question 
by  finding  in  the  Land  Office  in  Salem  several  Annual  State- 
ments of  the  Store,  written,  dated  and  signed  by  Traugott 
Bagge.  The  script,  though  small,  is  unusually  firm  and  dis- 
tinct, and  it  is  possible  to  compare  two  specimens  letter  by 
letter.  When  this  test  is  applied  to  the  "Fragment,"  with  these 
Annual  Statements  as  the  standard,  the  handwriting  of  the 
"Fragment"  is  found  to  be  Bagge's  throughout.  Moreover,  in 
the  body  of  the  "Fragment"  there  is  given  a  list  of  the  men  who 
signed  a  certain  paper  explaining  the  position  of  the  Moravians 
in  regard  to  the  war,  and  their  neutrality,  and  in  this  list  ap- 
pears the  name  of  Traugott  Bagge.  Laid  by  the  side  of  the 
signed  Statements  already  alluded  to,  it  becomes  evident  that 
this  name  is  a  genuine  signature,  and  by  the  fortunate  insertion 
of  this  list  the  signature  of  the  author  is  contained  in  the  body 
of  the  paper,  although  it  does  not  appear  at  the  end. 

This  not  only  proves  the  author  but  guarantees  the  accuracy 
of  statements  in  the  "Fragment,"  for  Bagge  was  the  most  able 
man  of  affairs  in  Wachovia  during  the  War.  At  that  time  the 
Store  was  the  center  of  trade  for  all  the  country  round,  and 
under  Bagge's  skillful  management  the  necessaries  of  life  were 
never  entirely  lacking  for  those  who  depended  on  his  Store  to 
supply  them.  His  influence  saved  the  town  from  financial  ruin 
in  the  flood  of  paper  currency  which  swept  over  the  land ;  and 
as  he  went  to  Charleston  for  supplies,  to  Hillsboro  or  Newbern 
to  appear  before  the  Assembly,  or  to  Old  Richmond  to  the 
County  Courts,  he  was  ever  on  the  alert  to  watch  the  trend  of 


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Facsimile  of  page  showing  Traugott  Bagge's  signature. 


events,  and  it  was  doubtless  from  the  information  he  gained, 
and  with  the  aid  of  his  shrewd  judgment  that  the  ministers 
charged  with  control  of  affairs  in  Wachovia  were  able  to  lead 
their  brethren  safely  through  the  very  great  perplexities  and 
dangers  that  surrounded  them.  As  merchant,  financier,  poli- 
tician, as  a  sturdy,  conscientious  man,  Traugott  Bagge  ranks 
among  the  first  in  the  history  of  the  State. 

(5.)  When  was  it  written?  The  question  of  date  presents 
the  most  difficulty,  but  by  a  process  of  elimination  it  has  become 
possible  to  decide  on  the  month  and  year  in  which  it  was  writ- 
ten, and  the  occasion  for  it.  A  busy,  active  man  like  Traugott 
Bagge  would  not  sit  down  and  cover  forty  pages  with  close 
German  script,  running  forty-two  lines  to  the  page,  simply  for 
amusement,  and  he  did  not  live  to  an  age  when  too  abundant 
leisure  would  be  an  incentive  thereto.  The  latest  date  in  the 
"Fragment"  is  contained  in  the  reference  to  the  Assembly  of 
1783,  already  mentioned.  This  Assembly  met  in  the  Spring, 
so  the  paper  could  not  have  been  written  before  April,  1783. 
In  the  Diary  of  1783,  the  first  pertinent  entry  is  on  April  iQth, 
when  the  Congregation  is  rejoiced  to  hear  of  the  signing  of 
peace  preliminaries  on  January  2Oth  at  Paris.  On  July  4th,  in 
response  to  a  proclamation  by  the  Governor  of  North  Carolina, 
Salem  had  a  great  Peace  Jubilee.  The  program  is  given  in  full, 
(see  Cle well's  History  of  Wachovia,  p.  170),  but  no  mention  is 
made  of  historical  papers.  Under  date  of  October  8th,  the 
secretary  of  the  Aeltesten  Conferenz  (the  ruling  board  of  Wa- 
chovia at  that  time)  makes  this  entry:  "The  memoranda  con- 
cerning the  protection  of  God  during  the  American  War,  which 
have  been  collected  by  Br.  Peter,  will  be  gone  through  at  a 
special  Conference  meeting."  On  November  23d,  the  Congre- 
gation heard  of  the  signing  of  the  Peace  Treaty  on  Septernber 
3d;  and  on  December  nth,  in  common  with  the  Moravian  Con- 
gregations in  Pennsylvania,  and  by  order  of  Congress,  they 
celebrated  a  "Friedens  Dankfest"  by  special  prayer  in  the  even- 
ing service.  On  December  3Oth,  the  Aeltesten  Conferenz  fixed 


8 

the  program  for  New  Year's  Eve;  "The  children  shall  have 
their  closing  meeting  at  three  o'clock;  the  adult  Congregation 
shall  have  a  Lovefeast  at  eight  in  the  evening,  at  ten  o'clock 
the  Memorabilia  for  this  year  and  for  the  War  shall  be  read, 
and  the  closing  meeting  shall  follow  at  half  past  eleven."  This 
is  confirmed  by  the  Diary  for  December  3ist,  which  says  of  the 
ten-o'clock  service  that  they  "remembered  the  many  mercies 
which  the  Lord  had  showed  them  not  only  during  the  year,  but 
throughout  the  eight  years'  War."  It  will  be  noted  that  Bagge's 
name  does  not  appear,  and  the  War  Memorabilia,  under  title 
of  "Lob  und  Dankopfer,"  read  in  the  service  and  filed  with  the 
Diary,  is  in  the  handwriting  of  John  Frederick  Peter,  then 
minister  in  Salem.  But  Peter  did  not  come  to  Wachovia  until 
1780,  would  therefore  have  had  no  knowledge  of  events  prior 
to  that  time,  and  it  seems  evident  that  when  he  began  to  collect 
the  memoranda  which  he  presented  to  the  Aeltesten  Conferenz 
early  in  October,  he  turned  to  Bagge,  who  at  his  request  wrote 
the  "Fragment"  under  discussion.  This  explains  why  Bagge 
ended  his  account  with  December,  1779,  for  from  then  on 
Peter  knew  all  the  circumstances  as  well  as  he,  and  the  closing 
then  is  otherwise  inexplicable,  for  he  stops  just  short  of  the 
time  when  Wachovia  came  directly  in  contact  with  the  opposing 
forces,  and  passed  the  most  perilous  and  most  exciting  days  of 
her  history.  The  paper  was  far  too  long  to  read  in  a  one-hour 
service,  but  the  "Lob  und  Dankopfer"  is  strikingly  like  a  re- 
sume of  Bagge's  sketch,  and  the  supposition  that  it  is  such  is 
strengthened  by  the  fact  that  in  the  Archives  of  Bethlehem,  Pa., 
there  are  two  copies  of  the  "Lob  und  Dankopfer,"  one  of  which, 
evidently  the  rough  copy,  is  in  Peter's  handwriting,  while  addi- 
tional notes  pasted  on  the  margin,  and  slipped  loose  between 
the  leaves,  are  in  Bagge's  handwriting.  The  other,  incorporat- 
ing many  of  these  notes,  is  entirely  in  Peter's  handwriting. 
That  Bagge,  having  helped  Peter  prepare  his  paper,  should 
later,  without  any  apparent  reason,  take  the  trouble  to  amplify 
the  sketch  to  the  limits  of  the  "Fragment,"  seems  most  improb- 


9 


able, — that  he  should  in  September  have  compiled  his  sketch, 
and  then  later  assisted  Peter  to  make  a  proper  resume  of  it,  is 
quite  natural,  and  fully  in  accord  with  the  prevailing  interest 
in  the  close  of  the  war. 

Traugott  Bagge  died  in  April,  1800,  but  a%  close  scrutiny  of 
the  Diary  from  January,  1784,  on  fails  to  give  a  single  reason 
for  the  writing  of  such  a  paper.  The  Salem  Congregation  had 
a  service  every  evening  in  the  week,  and  steadily  observed  an- 
niversaries of  various  kinds,  but  Fourth  of  July  and  Third  of 
September  pass  year  after  year,  with  record  of  the  topic  of  the 
service,  and  no  reference  whatever  to  Declaration  of  Indepen- 
dence, or  signing  of  Peace  Treaty,  or  events  of  the  war. 

Summing  up  the  evidence,  therefore,  it  may  be  definitely 
stated  that  the  "Fragment"  containing  the  Mecklenburg  refer- 
ence belongs  to  the  Salem  "Beilage,"  and  was  written  in  Salem, 
by  Traugott  Bagge,  about  September,  1783. 

ADELAIDE  L.  FRIES. 
Winston-Sal  em,  North  Carolina, 
April,  1906. 


COMMENTS. 

"If  the  controversy  over  the  Mecklenburg  'Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence' is  ever  settled,  it  will  have  to  be  done  by  genuine  contemporary 
documents." 

A.  S.  SALLEY,  JR., 

Secretary  of  the  Historical  Commission  of  South  Carolina. 
The  American  Historical  Review, 
April,  1906,  page  553. 


"I  have  been  much  interested  in  the  revival  of  the  discussion  concern- 
ing the  Mecklenburg  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  particularly 
gratified  that  through  your  researches  among  the  Archives  of  Wachovia 
you  have  found  records  which  substantiate  the  claims  made  for  this 
important  event. 

"I  am  thoroughly  familiar  with  the  records,  particularly  of  the 
Colonial  and  Revolutionary  periods,  of  the  Moravians  in  America,  and 
esteem  them,  local  and  general,  of  the  highest  historical  value." 

JOHN  W.  JOKDAN, 
Librarian  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania. 

Letter  of  January  21,  1907. 


"The  discovery  of  the  'Bagge  Manuscript'  effectually  sets  at  rest  the 
question  of  the  Mecklenburg  Declaration  of  Independence,  except  per- 
haps in  the  minds  of  those  who  are  unwilling  to  consider  the  matter  in 
a  fair  and  unbiased  light. 

"The  Wachovia  Archives  are  a  series  of  records  made  contemporaneous 
with  the  events  themselves,  and  form  an  unbroken  history  of  the  leading 
events  of  our  section,  and  of  the  principal  events  of  the  State,  and  even 
of  the  country  at  large,  from  1753  to  the  present  day.  In  no  case  has  the 
reliability  of  these  archives  ever  been  brought  into  question." 

JOHN  H.  CLEWELL, 
Archivist  of  Wachovia. 

The  Academy,  Jan.,  1907. 


"I  think  you  have  worked  out  very  carefully  this  piece  of  evidence; 
and  I  congratulate  you  on  your  fair  and  truly  scientific  spirit  of  re- 
search." 

J.  S.  BASSETT, 

Trinity  College,  Durham,  N.  C. 
Letter  of  May  8,  1906. 


11 


"1  wish  to  express  my  enthusiastic  appreciation  of  the  extremely  in- 
teresting piece  of  historical  criticism  that  you  have  written.  It  is  cer- 
tainly most  clear  and  convincing  and  seems  to  me  to  be  the  final  word 
with  regard  to  the  document  under  examination." 

"Mr.  Salley  agrees  with  me  that  your  conclusions  are  beyond  criticism.'' 

WALDO  G.  LELAND, 
DcfHir  lineiit  of  Historical  Research, 
Carnegie  Institution  of  Washington,  D.  C. 
Letters  of  Mav  !>  and  July  9.  190(i. 


"Here  seems  to  be  a  sound  chain  of  reasoning  to  establish  the  authen- 
ticity, authorship  and  date  of  the  [Bagge]  pamphlet.  Once  admitting 
that  it  was  written  in  178.3,  or  thereabouts,  it  must  be  conceded  that  the 
friends  of  the  Mecklenburg  Declaration  have  recovered  a  striking  piece 
of  evidence  in  support  of  their  case.  *  *  *  Historians  can  no  longer 
afford  to  treat  the  problem  with  the  superstition  of  incredulity.  They 
have  now  to  deal,  not  with  nebulous  theories  nor  with  hypotheses  sus- 
tained by  little  more  than  the  enthusiasm  of  local  pride  and  patriotism ; 
but  with  concrete  data  which  must  be  accepted  or  explained  away." 

H.  ADDINOTON  BRUCE. 

\orlli   A  iiH'i'ictin   Rericir,  July,   1900,  p.  60. 


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